5bites

I have an slx. Imo it’s the best reel under $150. There is a really good sale in the slx combo right now. Personally I’d run the 6’10” medium but the medium heavy would be better for the heavier walkers and possibly more universal https://slickdeals.net/share/iphone_app/t/13074307

With Cape Fair Marina advertising wake boat activities all winter long on facebook I’m not surprised they’d be out. It’s a shame (it’s May and up a river!) but not surprising. Good report though. The jig bite is very good news. Last Friday the points weren’t nearly as good to us as just straight flat stretches. We couldn’t get a flipping bite going and everything came out front. I was particularly bummed because fishing willows and buck brush is one of my very favorite things in life. Nevertheless the keitech made up for it.

Basically just experiment while keeping an eye on water pressure. The most gps speed with good pressure is the ticket. The beauty in a hydraulic is putting the motor deeper in rough water too. I wish I had one.

On a spinning rod there’s nothing at all wrong with running a really long leader. 20-40’ even. Personally I probably average 15’ or so. On a casting rod I probably go at least 10’ but under 20’.

Get tying the FG knot down and it may not bug you as bad. It flows well and it’s really pretty simple to tie after a little practice.

Good point. I thought they were longer than that honestly. I can’t stand to look at one long enough to decipher its length lol. I used to be annoyed by jet skis. Man I wish we had those days back.

I’ll go along with that. AiA has become quite the series. Where it differs though is they generally pull locals from each lake where as a traveling series has the same people fish multiple lakes. So if someone is great in Grand Lake that’s awesome but it’s more significant if they can swing with the best regionally on Grand , Table Rock, Truman etc. Plus if they’re at lake X they won’t be populating another lake that same weekend. Now the BFL on the other hand has potential to be something again. It died several years ago but it looks to be gaining ground again. It helps that some locals have succeeded coming up through the BFL. I know this will never go over and unless the economy tanks the lakes will remain swamped. It’s likely not a poplar opinion either.

I bought my son the 6’9” model of this series for Christmas and so far it’s a phenomenal rod. Personally I’d get myself the 7’1” but nevertheless for the money it’s been excellent. https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Phenix_Feather_Spinning_Rods/descpage-PFBR.html I build rods for myself but I’ll be adding a few of these Feathers because of their value and I just don’t always want to build.

A size limit on the boat would make a big impact on this. I’m not sure it’s fair really but it sounds good in a selfish way.

I do miss the days when there were fewer tournaments period. That’s not a dig against tournament fishing because I love it. What I mean is there was a time when a person did well in a particular series they had a reputation of being a great angler because the competition wasn’t spread among a hundred different tournaments. People like Dave Barker, Wes Endicott, the Davis boys, etc etc etc. Now there are so many tournaments even on the same day that the competition is just watered down. If the good anglers were in fewer places the competition would be tougher and more meaningful like the old Central Pro/Am days and even the Heartland. So not only is the number of tournaments bad for the lake it’s bad for building local legends. That sounds sentimental probably but I personally miss it. So all that said even if we stay with five fish weigh in type tournaments I believe it would help the lake and competition if there were fewer tournaments at one time even if the field is on the large side. You’ll weed out a lot of the less skilled guys because they won’t want to continuously donate for no reason. Then they’ll just fish to learn until they can compete. Which means they’ll catch and release because they aren’t in a derby. That was kinda all over the place but I hope it made a little bit of sense. We’ve just “grown the sport” to were it’s more about an eBay order jersey rather than good competition and good stewards of the lakes we’ve been extremely blessed with.

I’ve never done any trolling at all. Recently though we put an ultrex on the boat so I thought it might be something fun to try. Is this essentially and all year thing or primarily post spawn?

Great info guys! Thank you very much!

What is a good mph to start with trolling these? Is speed correlated with depth or is that more controlled with line size?

I’m with Ham. Feel and abrasion resistance is the deal for me with flouro. The visibility is a bonus if it’s true.

Hmmm that’s a shame to hear. If you get a chance to try Shooter you should jump on it. You might regret it though because it’s expensive and you’ll want more lol. It’s best for heavy cover situations and especially good for dock fishing.

Yea probably not but the vertical fish part possibly. It’s something I never thought about for spoonbills. I’ll never likely catch one in purpose anyway.

Other than the being old part man I’m ready lol. The cranky part is coming along nicely. That’s a big motivator behind this topic haha! Traffic, getting cut off, not finding a spot to get in etc. I’ll put it this way, I’m kinda tired of hearing “grow the sport” but that’s probably the cranky old man developing.

Lol I totally agree. I tend to over think the fun out of stuff. It’s probably because my boys are with me pretty much every trip now so it adds a different element to it. If it’s just you and a buddy then it makes the day a little easier and less hectic if that makes sense.

Right on bud will do. I have a silver and blue Stratos with a Yamaha that usually has two boys and a dad shaking his head in it.

10lb flouro for dragging finesse jigs, 15-20lb flouro for dragging football jigs, 20lb flouro for short lining. I primarily use Sunline brand of different types but there are some other really good brands out there. I’m tempted to try Pline tactical but Sunline has been very good to me.

Bill on Grand lake there’s a guide named Rusty Pritchard. He might be able to clarify some snagging methods for you. He gets them winter/late winter around Sailboat Bridge and we both know he’s not going to be dragging a giant treble around there lol. I never really gave it much thought but I bet he’s using a similar method you described in your post. Personally I know zilch about snagging and paddle fish other than in June running down Grand you better hope one doesn’t jump in front of you.

We ended up going yesterday and I’m glad we did. Traffic was not a problem in the Shell Knob area. We caught 55+ fish and 14 keepers. My youngest caught his first five fish limit and my oldest had a nice 17” smallmouth as part of his three keepers. To top it off Braums had good burgers for us as we went back through Aurora. It was a much needed good day.

That’s a valid point. I wish it was closer. It’s definitely a lake I wanna to get to know better. Mainly because of less traffic in general. I need to look up lodging down there so it could be a regular place for my family and I.

Ok I didn’t see you. I launched there and your profile pic looked like a gentleman I talked to. Apparently I’m mistaken lol

I’m likely going tomorrow now instead. Will likely launch at Eagle Rock since theoretically the traffic should be less.